Mission

Our mission is to study gender, women and sexuality in social relations, institutions, cultures and lived experience – locally, nationally and transnationally. By examining gender’s intersections with race, class, nation, colonialism, disability, religion, citizenship and more, we strive to understand histories and structures of injustice, and to determine the concept and practice of social justice.

 GWSS research, teaching, service and engagement take many forms – our faculty and students work to transform medicine to respond to the full array of healthcare needs; cultivate more diverse and equitable work cultures; shape laws and policies that are ecologically, socially and economically ethical; and craft transformative art and performance. We advance collective possibility, justice and vitality with a focus on individuals and social groups historically excluded from flourishing

Vision

The University of Iowa’s Department of Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies was one of the first such departments in the U.S., founded in 1974 and expanded to include a Social Justice major and minor in 2016. Our department conducts rigorous, creative, inspiring and impactful research on gender and social justice.